Note 6 — Chapter I · THE ANGLO-SAXON HERBALS

A small but striking instance of Saxon knowledge, or rather close observation, of plants is to be found in the following description of wolf’s teazle in the Herbarium of Apuleius:—“This wort hath leaves reversed and thorny and it hath in its midst a round and thorny knob, and that is brown-headed in the blossoms and hath white seed and a white and very fragrant root.” The word “reversed” is not in the original and was therefore added by the Saxon translator, who had observed the fact that all the thistle tribe protect their leaves by thorns pointing backwards as well as forwards.